With more than 130 readings and 24 pages of visual arguments, Conversations offers an extraordinary variety of authors, genres, voices, and viewpoints on important contemporary civic issues.

Touching on issues that affect students both as individuals and as citizens, the readings and visuals invite students to join important civic “conversations" through their own writing. For each issue addressed, Conversations offers not just one or two selections, but several–reminding students that no issue has just one or two sides, but usually involves a wide range of voices. Frequently, selections comment on and argue with other selections, demonstrating that writing is a social exchange, and that much writing is a response to what we read.   The images included in this new edition also remind students that we regularly “read”–interpret and respond to–not only words, but visual arguments found in photographs, artworks, cartoons, advertisements, and websites.